Kinds of Water
by StoryQuipster
Summary: [Collection of Gruvia Oneshots] Don't You Forget About Me: It's official. Tonight is the worst night. Ever.
1. Take Me Home Tonight

**Title:** Take Me Home Tonight  
 **Rating:** K+  
 **Prompt:** mutual drunk friend called BOTH of us to pick them up from a party well this is awkward  
 **Requested by:** Anonymous  
 **Author's Note:** This is going to be a series of Gruvia oneshots based on requests I got from tumblr. This one has a little shoutout to my other fic, _God Save the Queen_. I hope you guys enjoy it and if you have the time, please tell me what you think!

* * *

By the time Gray got to Cana's party, Natsu was already shit-faced drunk and draped all over a girl with pale skin and dark blue hair.

Lucy was _not_ going to be happy about this.

"Oi! Flame Brain!" Gray said as he squeezed past a couple that was groping each other. "If you don't want Lucy to kick you out of your apartment _for good_ , I suggest that you not go to the bathroom with that chick!"

The girl whirled around and scrunched her nose in offense. Gray raised his brows. Now that he had gotten a good look at her, she was actually kind of pretty. And surprisingly, not dressed for one of Cana's wild parties. Her hair was up in a haphazard bun and she was wearing an oversized sweater over a pair of leggings and squishy boots. She looked vaguely annoyed as she supported Natsu using her right arm and tried to pull him up into a standing position.

"Excuse me?"

"I was just...um...trying to tell him not to...I mean..." Gray shifted in his place as he tried to not appear squeamish under her gaze. Her eyes were blue and sharp, like ice and she had a bland expression on her face. It was a little jarring considering how her sweater had a picture of a fluffy kitten stitched at the front.

He suddenly felt annoyed at himself for feeling even the least bit nervous. He squared his shoulders, saying, "What I meant to say was that he already has a girlfriend."

"Juvia knows that," she said. Gray blinked at her, surprised that she spoke in third person. Juvia just stared back at him with a defiant gaze, as if daring him to make fun of her. He responded with a small smile. To be honest, he found it kind of cute.

"Oh, I just thought that...you know.'' He made a gesture between her and Natsu.

Juvia flushed. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "You can't possibly think that—Juvia and Natsu-san—''

She started to fervently shake her head. "You—you've got it all wrong! Juvia wasn't trying to screw Natsu-san in the bathroom. She came over her to pick him up."

"Pick him up?"

She nodded, pulled her phone out and after a quick series of taps, held it out to Gray.

"Stormborn!" Natsu's voice slurred out from the phone. "I'm calling you...you're probably...whatever. I just want you to know that...I think I can't drive so...you know...Waaaaaasssup?"

"Stormborn?" Gray wryly said.

"It's nothing—''

Natsu leaned forward and interjected, "Hah! Don't you know who she is? This is the queen of Moondoor, Juvia, House of Tusktides, Stormborn and Tamer of Wild Seas..."

The corners of Gray's lips quirked into an amused smile. Moondoor was a Live Action Role Play game his friend was extremely fond of. With her initially severe expression and imposing posture, Gray never would've thought she'd be the type to be into something like that. "Moondoor? Isn't that—''

"It's a dignified pastime!" she defensively said. She then straightened up and pulled Natsu closer to her. " _Anyway_ , it was nice meeting you..."

"Gray," he supplied.

Her eyes widened. She suddenly took a step back and gave him a weird look. Gray stared back at her, confused.

"Er...right. Gray. Gray-sama. Um...yes. Okay." She then gave him a really strange once over.

"Um...Juvia? Is there anything wrong—''

"No! Nothing wrong at all!" Her bland voice suddenly became shrilly as she continued to scrutinize him. Then she awkwardly clapped her hands. "So! Juvia will just get Natsu-san's car and bring him to her apartment—''

"Wait a minute. Bring him to _your_ apartment?"

"Yes. He's having a fight with Lucy-san so he can't exactly go home right now, can't he?"

"You know Lucy?" If she knew both of his friends, how had he never seen her before?

"Of course! She babysits for their cat sometimes. Don't worry, she and Juvia are good friends." She began to drag Natsu to the exit.

"Oi! Hold on. I think Natsu would be more comfortable if I brought him to my apartment."

She gave him the same weird look again.

"Um...no offense but...Juvia doesn't think that Natsu-san would want to be going off with...someone like you."

"What? Look, Natsu and I knew each other since we were kids and I'm pretty sure that he'd rather crash in my place than yours."

"But Natsu-san called me."

"He called me too!" Gray pulled his phone out and scrolled through his voice mail. Natsu's wobbly voice blared out as he crooned, "Roooooxaaannee! You don't have to put on the red light! Rooooooxanne—''

"He's not even calling for you to pick him up."

"Yes, he is. I would know because I'm his childhood and—'' He momentarily cringed. "—best friend."

Ugh. She just had to make him say it.

"Well, he called Juvia first."

"No, he didn't. It says here that he called you at 1:07. He called me at 1:03."

"You know what? Why don't we just ask Natsu-san himself?"

They both turned to look at Natsu who was snoring; his head drooped on Juvia's shoulder. She turned back to look at Gray to smile triumphantly.

"Looks like Juvia's bringing him home tonight."

Gray opened his mouth to argue but then stopped. Natsu looked exhausted and he figured that arguing with some random chick over who should bring him home would be the least helpful thing for his idiot friend right now. He didn't even know why Natsu calling someone else other than him bothered him so much.

"Fine. But could you at least give me a lift home? I took a taxi thinking that I'd be driving his car."

Juvia gave him that weird look again. She bit her lip and tried to shift her weight without moving Natsu. "Well...Juvia would really rather not..."

"Where do you live? Downtown? If you won't be passing by my apartment, you can drop me off by the mall so at least I could walk over to the station and take the train."

"Why can't you just take a taxi again?"

"Because I don't want to spend money when I could be getting a ride for free. Seriously. What's your problem?"

She suddenly started sputtering again, doing that adorable thing where her lips quivered and her eyes fluttered but didn't actually close. It was a little silly but he actually liked it whenever she faltered from her impassive demeanor. It made her seem less cold and unapproachable. "What are you talking about? Juvia doesn't have a problem."

"You've been giving me really weird looks the whole evening."

"Juvia has not—''

"You wouldn't let me bring Natsu home to my apartment—''

"Juvia just doesn't think it's right for two men to be alone in an apartment together—''

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Gray sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Come on. Just give me a lift home."

"Juvia doesn't think she can really do that—''

"Why not?"

"Because she doesn't want to be alone in a car with a potential sexual predator!" she blurted out.

Gray blinked at her. She looked away, embarrassed by her outburst.

"What?"

With her free hand, she began to fiddle with the hem of her sweater. "Er...well...Natsu-san has told Juvia...a couple of things about Gray-sama...specifically about his habit of flashing women and little girls—''

"I do not flash women!" Gray hotly said. "Or little girls!"

"Natsu-san wouldn't lie about something like that. Plus, Lucy-san has confirmed it."

He was going to _kill_ Natsu.

She sighed before smoothing her expression over. "Listen, Gray-sama...you seem like a nice guy and Juvia would be happy to give you a lift home. But she's just not comfortable being alone in a car with a pervert—''

"I am not a pervert!"

" _Pervert_!" someone yelled.

"Gray-sama, you're clothes!" Juvia yelped. Gray looked down and saw that somehow, in the course of their conversation, he had discarded his pants and his shirt, leaving him only in his boxers.

"Gah! What the hell!"

Juvia took a step back, sufficiently creeped out.

"Wait! I didn't do this on purpose! I swear!''

Before Juvia could respond, more people crowded around him. A couple of girls wolf-whistled and cat-called and some guys started to compare boxers while others blurted out expressions of disgust. Even Natsu had woken up out of his stupor to make fun of him and call him names. He whipped his head around as he tried to find his clothes but the close press of people and the litter of empty alcohol bottles and pizza containers made it difficult for him to do so.

Gray clutched the band of his boxers as he silently willed himself to not subconsciously remove it. "Take me home. Please."

"What?" she cried, incensed.

"Don't look at me like that, you know what I mean!" Gray irritably said.

"Well...Juvia supposed that she can't exactly let you walk home naked."

"Thank you," he mumbled.

"But you have to keep your hands to yourself."

"I will—''

"And keep your boxers on—''

"I wasn't planning on removing them!" he indignantly said.

"You just did, right now," Juvia pointed out.

"Gaaah!" He fumbled around for his boxers. "Stop looking!"

"Juvia isn't!"

"I can see you! You're peeking behind your fingers!"

When they had finally found his boxers and made their way to Natsu's car, Gray clambered into the back seat and tried to look unaffected as she pulled out of Cana's garage and into freeway.

"Just so you know," Gray mumbled after giving Juvia instructions to his apartment complex. "This doesn't always happen."

He tried to sound casual but he just ended up sounding defensive. He didn't even know why he felt the need to convince her that he was not some freak with a weird stripping habit. Usually, he didn't give a fuck about what people thought of him.

"Yeah. It only happens when he gets nervous or flustered," Natsu cheerfully interjected as he leaned forward and began to randomly tap at the window. He was still humming _Roxanne_ from under his breath.

The corners of Juvia's mouth twitched upwards. Her smile was very pretty. It was her first genuine, non-awkward pr creeped-out one. He wasn't going to lie, she looked gorgeous when she was serious and frowny-faced but when she smiled, she just _glowed_. "Juvia makes you flustered?"

"No!"

Natsu started laughing. "Um yeah. She does. You've taken your boxers off again!"

"Gah! Dammit!"

Natsu leaned closer to Juvia and conspiratorially whispered," Don't worry. He just trying to act cool."

"I can hear you!"

Her smile started to grow and at that moment, Gray decided that he definitely wanted to see more of it.

"Oi! Stripper!"

"What!?"

"Aren't you gonna ask Juvia for her number?"

" _What_?" he spluttered.

"Eh?" Juvia said, equally flustered.

"What kind of friend are you, anyway? Don't you wanna check up on me in the morning?" He turned around to glare at Gray before shaking his head. "Asshole."

"I have your number dumbass. I can always call you."

"I'm gonna be passed out so, you know." Natsu grabbed one of the bobble heads at his dashboard and clumsily flung it at Gray. He dissolved into giggles. "Dude. Just ask for her number."

Juvia made a turn to the left and met Gray's eyes from the rear view mirror. Her eyes had somehow turned into a lighter shade of blue and they looked less severe. He figured that maybe it was because they were all crinkled up.

Now that he thought about it, he would be a really bad friend if he didn't check up on Natsu in the morning.

And he still hadn't convinced Juvia that he wasn't a perverted freak.

"You know what?" He took his phone out and grinned at her. "That's actually not a bad idea, Flame Brain."


	2. Barenaked

**Title:** Barenaked  
 **Rating:** T  
 **Prompt:** Camp Counselor AU - on my day off I was hanging all my clothes out to dry on the clothesline and figured you and another counselor took all the kids on a hike but you came back early just in time to see a bear steal my underwear and me naked trying to figure out what to do (they were my last good pair)  
 **Requested by :** Contrail **  
**

* * *

When Gajeel and all the other counselors left to take the kids out on a hike, Juvia thought that nothing could be more perfect.

She had a backlog of laundry to deal with and the only way for her to have clean clothes by the end of the day was to do all of the washing _buck naked._ And with absolutely everyone in the camp gone for the whole afternoon, today was the only time she could do so.

Normally, she would never have engaged in such scandalous behavior but at that point, she was desperate. She had been wearing the same set of unwashed clothes for the past two weeks and she was starting to develop a serious rash because of it. It didn't help that a couple of the shirts she wore had become salty with sweat—she was Gajeel's Muay Thai sparring partner and they practiced at least once a week.

She never should have agreed to give up her day offs just so Gajeel could work on his "songwriting." If she hadn't, then she wouldn't have been stuck here, hanging up all her clothes, shivering in the cold. She would have been out in the forest, having a romantic walk with her beloved Gray-sama.

She dreamily sighed.

Gray was the counselor who gave pottery and clay-sculpting lessons. He and Gajeel were often paired up because they both handled the arts and crafts activities (Gajeel taught guitar-playing and singing) and Gray came over to their cabin to discuss lesson plans (or argue) nearly every day. Juvia wasn't going to lie. She lived for those moments.

Gajeel, on the other hand, _hated_ him and railed nonstop about Gray's unusual habit of stripping all while trying to keep Juvia locked out of the room whenever he came. Juvia just thought that Gajeel was being too overprotective. There was a reason why her last relationship ended in disaster.

She shook her head and watched as the sun filtered through the gaps of the leaves in the forest. She could've been enjoying that scene with Gray, watching the light slant into the trees as the afternoon wore on. Gray would grab her hand and run his thumb over her knuckles before twining his fingers with hers, smiling at her as he leaned in close and whispered—

Something rustled in the leaves. Juvia frowned.

There was something moving in the shadows although it was hard to see what it was from her position. She bit her bottom lip. She really shouldn't worry. For all she knew, it could just be a cute, baby rabbit or a lost wolf cub. Stuff like that wasn't too unusual. The clothesline was located at a small, hilly area that lay at the border between the woods and the camp cluster.

When she didn't hear or notice anything after a few seconds, she shrugged before going back to hanging up all her clothes. A chilly draft blew, making her skin prickle with gooseflesh. She rubbed her arms and stared longingly at her wet jacket. If Gray were here, he would offer her his jacket. He would wrap it around her shoulders before gently using his fingers to tip her chin upwards, forcing her to meet his warm gaze—

A low grunt suddenly rumbled from the forest.

Juvia twisted the handkerchief in her hands, annoyed.

Okay, that was it.

She was going to find out what was making that noise, nakedness be damned.

Carefully, she made her way towards the thicket of trees, ignoring the brambles that slapped against her bare thighs. The movement seemed to becoming from a small bush at the bottom of a great cyprus tree. Pressing the handkerchief to her chest as if to provide herself with extra protection, she slowly knelt down and using her free hand, quickly searched through the leaves.

A small, wet nose poked out.

"Awwww. It's a baby bear," Juvia crooned.

She reached a hand out to pet it but before she could, a low growl rumbled from behind her.

She spun around just in time to see a big, grizzly bear poking its nose at one of her underwear before ripping it off the clothesline with its teeth.

"Wait! Not that one!" she screeched, arms flailing. "That's Juvia's Victoria's Secret special PINK underwear!"

Of all the panties the bear had to steal, he had to steal the most expensive one.

She scrambled towards the bear, jaws locked in determination. From what she could remember, the thing with grizzly bears is that you either have to drop to the ground in a fetal position or play dead. The thing to definitely _not_ do was to run after the bear.

Before Juvia could react, the bear suddenly cocked its head towards her. It blinked at her for a couple of seconds before giving a low growl and rampaging towards her.

Panicked, she dived out of the way, screaming, "Bear! Bear!"

The bear lumbered off into the woods without a second glance, her limited edition PINK underwear still in its jaws. Juvia groaned as the pebbles and rocks dug against her skin. She struggled to stand up, muttering under her breath.

She had just managed to regain her footing when she suddenly heard a movement from behind her.

Juvia didn't even hesitate.

Before she could stop herself, she automatically raised her leg in a straight teep kick before grabbing the bear in an arm clinch and flipping it to the ground.

"Oh! Shit! Fuck!" he cried out.

Her mouth popped open.

Oh god.

Oh no.

It can't be.

He wasn't supposed to be back until late in the evening.

"Oh my god! Juvia is so sorry!"

Gray blearily blinked at her. "Guess Gajeel wasn't dicking around when he told me you were his sparring partner, huh?"

* * *

"Gray-sama...Juvia is so sorry. She didn't know what came over her. She wasn't thinking, honestly—''

"Juvia, it's okay," Gray mumbled as he rubbed his forehead.

"Juvia didn't know it was you. She thought you were the bear—''

"You were going to judo-flip a bear?" Gray incredulously said.

"Well, actually it's a Muay Thai move. But waahh! Gray-sama! Juvia hurt you—''

"Juvia, it's fine." He tried to grin at her although his smile was marred by his wincing. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was really worried that the bear was going to hurt you."

He placed his hands over her shoulders and met her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Juvia's fine. It's just that..." Her lower lip trembled.

"What?" he asked, concerned.

"The bear stole Juvia's underwear!"

"What?"

"The bear stole Juvia's underwear!" she repeated. "It was limited edition!"

"Look, it's okay. I'm gonna get you new ones okay?" he hastily said as tears started to leak from the corner of her eyes. Then, when he realized what he just said, he cringed. "Anyway, you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine, really."

"But...but...Juvia hurt Gray-sama!" she wailed. She clutched at her cheeks as she began to sway back and forth.

"No, no, I'm fine! This is probably just a bruise—''

"Let Juvia see—''

"Juvia, I'm okay—''

"Gray-sama, let Juvia see," she sternly told him. Gray sighed and mutely nodded his head.

She leaned closer and placed a palm over the spot where a dark, purplish bruise was forming. She gently stroked it with her fingers, trying to see if it was tender. It didn't seem too bad although he was probably going to need an ice pack.

"Um...Juvia?"

"Yes?"

"You're um...you're..." He thickly swallowed and gestured at the tiny sliver of space between them. "You're kind of—''

"Oh. Oh yes, erm, sorry Gray-sama," she quickly said. She was still naked and in all the flurry their encounter had caused, not one of them seemed to have realized that Juvia was still still in dire need of clothes.

Gray quickly turned around and fixed his gaze on tree at the distance.

"I'll just wait over here."

"Right. Juvia's just going to get one of her shirts from the clothesline—''

"What?"

Gray frowned as he turned to look at her again. His eyes involuntarily wandered to her chest for a moment before snapping back up to her face. He clenched his jaw, forehead beaded with sweat. Despite herself, Juvia couldn't help but giggle. It looked as if keeping his eyes on her face took every ounce of his concentration.

"But they're still wet. You're going to catch a cold if you wear one of those."

"Juvia knows but—''

"No, here. You should wear this instead," he said. He reached his arms out to pull his shirt off.

Except that he didn't have any.

"Gah!" he cried out when he realized that he was down to his boxers.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia cried out, flustered that he was just about as naked as her. She quickly covered her eyes with her hands but not before sneaking a peek.

"Dammit! When did this happen?" he cried out. He began to scour the area for his discarded clothes. Juvia sighed in disappointment. Trust Gray's stripping habit to ruin a romantic moment.

"It's okay Gray-sama, Juvia will just get one of her shirts."

"No! You'll catch a cold."

"But—''

"We could use this," he said, coming forward with a yellow towel. "It's still damp but it's drier than most of the clothes."

He moved towards her, looking flustered but determined. Then, without ever tearing his gaze away from hers, he wrapped her up in the big yellow towel, making sure she was as safe and as warm as a caterpillar in a cocoon. Juvia fisted her fingers as she attempted to keep herself from melting into the ground like a puddle of water.

"Are these your only clothes?" he asked, gesturing at the clothesline.

She nodded.

"You stay here," he said, voice solemn. "I'm gonna go to my cabin and get a shirt and maybe some pants for you. They'll be too big but I'm sure we'll make them fit somehow."

"But Gray-sama, Juvia would never dream of troubling you!"

"It's okay. I'm always like this anyway so people won't think anything is unusual when they see me walking back to camp in nothing but my boxers."

"But your clothes—''

"I don't mind lending them to you."

Juvia's cheeks reddened as she clasped her hands together. Her heart was pounding against her chest, the sound beating against her ears like a drum. His hands were still on the towel and he was so, _so_ close. "Gray-sama..."

Before she could finish, a large cloud of pepper spray wafted towards them, followed by loud yells of "Bear!"

Gray coughed, eyes teary. "What the—''

Before he could react, a shoe bopped him on the head. He lost his balance, falling backwards with a cry.

Juvia swivelled around to face the perpetrator.

"Gajeel-kun!" she hissed.

"What?" he said, maintaining a look of innocence. "I thought he was a bear!"

Juvia huffed and folded her arms.

"Gray-sama looks nothing like a bear!" she indignantly said.

Gajeel looked away from her although it still wasn't enough to hide the satisfied smirk on his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."


	3. Point Me At the Sky

**Title:** Point Me at the Sky  
 **Rating:** T  
 **Prompt:** "This is a five-hour plan ride, we're sitting together and you're deathly afraid of flying" AU  
 **Dedicated to:** endingsarenotalwaysbad  
 **Requested by :** Anonymous  
 **Author's Note:** So I actually started writing this a long time ago and intended for it to be a sort of Christmas gift to my dear friend, Xenia ^^ But work got in the way and I never really had time to finish it up until now. When I read through the requests, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one coincided with the idea I've had and I was inspired to finish the draft. This oneshot is inspired by Sophie Kinsella's book _Can You Keep a Secret?_ I'm clueless about American/International clothes sizes so my apologies if they're a bit wonky.

* * *

"So, what can I get you, miss?" the bartender says as Juvia slumps into the counter. Her hair's in a frizz and the blazer she's wearing is draping off her in a really awkward way so she doesn't feel too offended when the guy gives her an odd look.

"White wine," she says but then the flight announcement about Glasgow comes again and her stomach does a violent little flip-flop. "Er...on second thought. Give Juvia a vodka and tonic, please."

The bartender gives her an amused smile and she just groans and buries her face in her hands because oh god, she's started talking in third person again. That usually never happens except for when she's upset or sad or angry or stressed. And she happens to be all four right now.

"Rough day?" the bartender sympathetically says.

"You have no idea," she mumbles.

The very first meeting she's set up as a Marketing Executive basically ended in disaster. She was supposed to finalize a promotional arrangement between the company that she works for, Mirukobicchi Sweets and the new cranberry-flavored juice from Nongchang Farm but Nongchang ended up pulling out of the deal at the last minute. She attempted to salvage the situation by giving this really amazing speech about Mirukobicchi and the brand that they represent and embody and it would've been really great too if she hadn't knocked all of the cupcakes from the stand and sent them all flying towards Nongchang's executive.

The deal's basically botched and now she has to go back to the company and tell everyone that they're going to have to call off the whole promotional campaign they've got planned. She knows that the whole marketing team is going to be pissed when they find out, especially her boss Laxus, so she's not exactly excited to go home.

Well, that and the fact that she has to ride a plane to do so.

See, Juvia has a little secret.

Okay, actually she has _a lot of_ secrets. Which is perfectly normal. Everyone has secrets. There are certain things that she's never and will never admit to anybody. Like how she likes sweet sherry (the least cool drink in the universe) and that the Kate Spade bag she's given to her friend, Lisanna is actually a fake. Or that she's lied to her boyfriend Bora that she's a size 3 instead of a size 4 (although in her defense, she was totally planning on going on a diet when she told him that. And to be fair, it's only one number different). Or that she's once had this weird, sexual dream about her flatmate, Gajeel and actually replaced his pet goldfish with another one because his cat, Pantherlily ate the real one.

Or that she's horrendously afraid of flying.

No one knows, not even her boyfriend or Gajeel. It's not something that she wants to announce to the world because her job requires her to fly off to places to attend conferences and secure deals and Bora works in an airline company so he's always springing her with surprise vacations. It's really sweet except that it takes her at least a week's worth of mental conditioning to be even barely functional on a plane. It's stupid because obviously, nothing's going to happen to her. Gajeel has once told her that more people die from car accidents or whatever than plane crashes.

But still. She just doesn't like it. She'd really just rather stay on the ground.

"Here you go, sweetheart," the bartender says.

Juvia takes the drink and immediately downs a big gulp, her face screwing up when she hears another flight announcement. Maybe she'll have another glass, just so she can calm the jumpy feeling in her chest.

By the time her flight is called, she's already drunk two and her nerves are nowhere near soothed. Laxus has just texted her about the deal and if she has the contract with her already and she just texts back an evasive reply about the weather. Honestly, this whole botched deal thing really isn't helping her. If she doesn't get a grip on herself, she's going to do something stupid like jump off the plane mid-flight.

The flight attendant leads her to the first class area and when she sees the big, wide seats and comfy footrest, she immediately feels a wave of guilt for not telling Laxus yet. The company's paying for her entire trip and since she's an executive now, she basically gets first class amenities. Laxus was the one who campaigned hard for her to be promoted, so she feels really bad for letting him down.

"Is everything okay for you?" the flight attendant asks her.

Juvia beams at her. "It's perfect! Thank you very much!"

"Would you like some champagne?"

Well, she's already had three glasses of vodka. But surely having a teeny glass of champagne won't be too bad.

She's not even the slightest bit buzzed anyway.

She nods her head and the woman smiles at her and bows before leaving.

Juvia sinks back against her seat and tries to make herself as comfortable as possible. There's a Cosmo magazine and one of the articles that catches her eye is the "30 Things to Do Before You're 30" one. She's 27 so she's about to hit the big number and she wants to see if she's done a lot of cool, fun things before she you know, _gets old_. Midway through, the plane starts taking off and her hands start to shake. Outwardly, she's trying to look like a relaxed business-class, top marketing executive. But really, every tiny sound is making her jump and she swears that she's breathing even louder than usual.

When the plane finally takes off, she's unable to hold a little squeal and to keep herself from looking like an idiot, she grabs the nearest thing her other hand could find which is the laminated safety instructions. There are drawings of brace positions and maps of safety exits—and oh god.

Safety exits.

She swivels around in her chair and wildly starts to look for one. Where are they? She looks at the map and sees that the safety exit is somewhere in the economy class. She pinches the bridge of her nose with a shaky hand and quietly moans. Why did they have to get her a first class ticket? Why did she have to get promoted? Now, when the plane crashes, she won't be able to make it to the exit in time and she'll die before getting married or getting a tattoo or saving a life or—

The flight attendant comes back to give the guy sitting next to her a glass of brandy and a leaflet entitled "Executive Facilities." He's around her age, tall and well-built with dark hair and serious gray eyes. He doesn't look up from the laptop he's engrossed in, muttering only a small "thank you" when the woman hands him the leaflet and the glass. He sounds Japanese, just like her.

She's not going to lie. He's not exactly unattractive.

"How about you, ma'am? Would you like anything else?" the flight attendant asks her. "Another magazine perhaps?"

"No. Juvia—I mean, I'm fine actually," she mutters.

"Are you travelling on business?"

She starts feeling the same guilty twinge again.

"Um...yes."

"Would you like a flier about our new business lounge in Thailand?"

"Oh no, it's fine." The flight attendant smiles at her and makes a move to walk away. Juvia grabs her hand and tries to keep an outward veneer of calm. "But while you're here, Juvia—I mean, I would just like to ask. Is that sound normal?"

"What sound?"

"You know, that sound. The one coming from the wing."

"I don't hear anything." She gives Juvia a sympathetic look. "Are you a nervous flyer?"

"No!" She quickly looks away but instead finds herself staring at the gray-eyed guy who just gives her an odd look. She turns back to look at the flight attendant and shakily smiles. "Just wondering. Out of interest."

"I'll be sure to check it out for you," she kindly says.

She walks out of the first class area and Juvia gulps down the rest of her champagne.

The plane suddenly jolts.

Juvia grabs both her armrests, a sudden rush of fear engulfing her. Here she is, sitting several miles off the ground, in a tiny, enclosed metal box with no way out if a disaster happens. The whirring sound from the wing intensifies and the bumping seems to become more frequent—even the guy beside her has noticed. He's shut his laptop off to look outside the window and frown. Vaguely, she hears the captain say something about turbulence but she's too busy counting in her head to notice.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—

The plane bumps again.

Juvia's head jerks up. What was that? Did they get hit?

She takes a deep breath and tries to relax the grip she has on her armrests. It's going to be okay. She's just exaggerating. The plane is totally fine. They probably just hit an air pocket. Or they were struck by lightning. Or hail. Or a thunderstorm. Or—

The plane makes a huge dip.

And at that moment, everything fragments.

Screams start erupting everywhere. Air masks start dropping. The plane starts falling, plummeting downward like a stone. The flight attendant who's just come back has stumbled forward and banged her head against the floor. Juvia starts grasping at her seat, trying to hold on but she can feel herself being wrenched upwards, like someone's tugging her, like gravity has somehow stopped working—

"We're going to die!" she screeches.

The plane has stabilized a little but the stewardess has a little blood on her forehead and the man next to her is grasping his seat just as tightly as tightly she is. The captain starts speaking over the intercom, something about how the plane has some clear-air turbulence and how the rest of the flight is going to be a little unsteady. Juvia can't bring herself to listen because she's too busy trying to calm her shuddering heart.

"I'm sorry?" the guy next to her says.

 _"We're going to die!"_

The plane dips again and she gives an involuntary shriek.

"We're not going to die," he calmly says. Juvia blinks at him and tries to calm herself long enough to form a coherent sentence. He's staring at her with concern, a tiny notch in between his brows. She thickly swallows. He could be the last person she'll ever see.

"The plane is crashing!"

"The captain said it was just turbulence."

"Of course, he's going to say it's just turbulence! He's not gonna say "sorry folks, you're all goners" or tell us that we're currently about to crash in the Atlantic Ocean—''

"We're nowhere near the Atlantic Ocean," he soothingly says. "And we're not going to die."

The plane gives another swoop and Juvia involuntarily grabs the man's hand. "We are! Juvia just knows that we will! We're not going to make it. This is it. Oh god. Juvia's not ready. She hasn't achieved anything. She's never had children. She's never saved a life."

Her eyes fall to the "30 Things To Do Before You're 30" article. "She's never gotten a tattoo or seen a sunset or gone to Antigua."

"Antigua?" he says, confused.

"Juvia just messed up an important business deal and now, she'll never get the chance to make it up to Laxus-san. She'll never get the chance to be Vice-President or fall in love—''

She abruptly stops because what she's just said was so _ridiculous_. She is in love. With Bora. And okay, fine. Maybe she doesn't get butterflies whenever she's with him and maybe she always zones out whenever he goes on to one of his long speeches about how rich he is or how great his job is. But they've been going out for a year now and they've hardly had any problems. In fact, they haven't really argued at all. Not once.

See? They're the perfect couple.

"I'm sure you'll still have plenty of time to do all those things," the man nicely says.

"Juvia won't because the plane is going to crash any minute!" The guy opens his mouth to say something but she cuts him off before she can. "Juvia's never going to get the chance to make her parents proud. Well, they can't exactly see Juvia right now because they're dead. They died when Juvia was still a little kid. But still, Juvia likes to imagine that they're up there in heaven or wherever, watching her. She'll never get to say goodbye to her best friend Gajeel-kun or Lisanna..."

Oh god, why is she still talking? She tries to shut up but she just can't. Every time the plane jolts, a torrent of words pours randomly out of her mouth.

"...the Kate Spade bag Juvia gave Lisanna is actually fake but Juvia didn't want to tell her because it was her birthday and she really wanted a Kate Spade bag..."

"...actually a size 4 but Juvia was going to go on a diet. Honestly..."

"...awful woman called Karen. She sits beside Juvia and keeps bossing Loke around. Sometimes, when she's not looking, Juvia waters her stupid spider plant with orange juice, just to serve her right..."

"...met Cana on Juvia's gap year. She has really nice clothes so when Juvia goes out she borrows from her because Cana's dresses make Juvia's boobs look bigger..."

"...awful presents but Juvia has to pretend that she likes them..."

"...wear G-strings because they don't give you VPL. But they're _so_ uncomfortable..."

"...nice girl called Lisanna. Juvia and her have this secret code where she comes in and says, 'Can I run through some promos with you, Juvia?" but actually, we just go to the Starbucks down the street..."

"...office has the worse coffee ever. Laxus-san refuses to change the coffee machine..."

"...lied and placed that Juvia knew how to speak conversational Mandarin in her CV even though she only knew three words so now she has to keep watching Jackie Chan movies just so she can keep up because Laxus-san keeps sending her to Beijing..."

"...first time Juvia saw him she thought 'Wow, he's really good-looking.' He's very tall and blond because he's half-Russian. Cana's always bugging Juvia to introduce them to each other..."

"...size 4 and didn't know what to do so when Bora-kun bought Juvia underwear, she had to say 'Wow, so lovely' even though they barely fit her..."

"...spoke in third person when Juvia was a kid and it never really went away. Happens whenever Juvia is nervous, like right now..."

"...didn't know what happened. Juvia was very sure that she kept the goldfish in a place where Pantherlily couldn't get it..."

"...never cried in _The Notebook_ but Juvia always cries whenever _The Lion King_ or _Anastasia_ plays because they remind Juvia of when she found out that her parents died..."

Juvia literally has no idea what's happening around them. It's as if it's just her and the stranger and her mouth, spewing out her innermost secrets and thoughts.

It's almost like therapy.

"...had this weird, sexual dream with Gajeel-kun that involved bananas and whipped cream..."

"...plays the guitar and writes songs but Juvia hates them all because he repeats the same words over and over again but he's her best friend so she has to pretend to like them..."

"...got into a fight once because he took the last _Pillows_ ticket and Juvia really wanted to go see their concert..."

"...has a girlfriend who ropes him and Juvia into jazz concerts but we hate jazz and Gajeel-kun loves her too much to tell her so now we have to sit through every jazz concert she invites us to..."

"...lost Juvia's virginity to Totomaru while Juvia's uncle was watching _Rashomon_..."

"...Bora-kun's like Toto except he talks more and never wears the gifts Juvia gets for him even though they cost her two paychecks..."

"...nervous that Juvia might not know any tricks in bed..."

"...sometimes when we're right in the middle of passionate sex, he does this one thing that makes Juvia laugh..."

"...can't expect the initial passion to last but Juvia didn't think it would fizzle out this quickly—''

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

Juvia blinks. The stewardess is smiling at her.

"Yes?"

"We've landed," she cheerfully says.

"What?"

"We've landed."

"But the plan was crashing," Juvia dumbly says.

"We did encounter a fair bit of turbulence but we've landed and are in the airport now," she patiently explains.

"Oh," Juvia says. "We didn't die."

"Yes, we didn't," the man says.

Juvia turns to look at him in horror, painfully aware that she's just blurted out every single secret she's ever had to a complete stranger.

"Juvia—I mean, I'm sorry," she mumbles. "You should've stopped me."

"It's okay," he says. "It was a little hard to."

"I feel so embarrassed," she says, mortified. She quickly tries to run over every thing she's ever said to him but she's coming up with a blank.

"Don't worry about it. We were all stressed out. That was one hell of a flight," the guy says.

"Er...right! Yes! Now, if you excuse me, I'll just go and –''

"Um, miss?" the man says, clearing his throat.

"Yes?"

"You're still holding my hand."

"Oh!" Juvia quickly grabs her hand back. "Sorry!"

"It's okay," he says.

He stands up and takes a suitcase from the overhead compartment bin.

"Will you be okay going home?" he asks her before leaving.

She gives him a weak smile. "Yes."

Thank god they're strangers. At least, she'll never have to see him again. She's just remembered that she talked about losing her virginity and she doesn't think she's prepared to interact with someone who has that kind of knowledge about her.

* * *

When she gets to work the next day, she already has a long apology speech ready and she's put on her best, professional, "I'm-not-a-screw-up" clothes. She has a neat, pencil skirt on paired with a blue blouse tucked in and her best black pumps. She's also spent the whole night with Gajeel conditioning herself to not start speaking in third person once Laxus starts grilling her.

As she walks up the steps, she notices that there's a commotion behind the glass front of the building. People are running to and fro or smoothing down their hair and straightening their shirts. A few are polishing the brash banisters and fluffing up the fake plants and dusting the paintings. Juvia pushes her way past the heavy, revolving glass doors, her brows drawn in confusion.

"What's going on?" she says to Kinana, the receptionist.

Before she can reply, Erza, the office manager, starts loudly yelling into a megaphone, "Everyone, go to your offices! We don't want all you hanging around the reception area! You should all be in your desks right now. I repeat. _You should all be in your desks right now._ "

"Sorry," Kinana says, shooting Juvia an apologetic look. "It's just that, Gray Furubasuta is coming."

Juvia's mouth pops open. "What?"

Kinana nods. "Yeah. In about five minutes."

"But...but why?"

Everyone knows who Gray Furubasuta is. He's the adopted son of Ur Mirukobicchi and since her death, he's been running the company along with Ur's daughter, Ultear and her other adopted son, Lyon Basutia. Him coming over to their company is like the Pope visiting. Gray has been living out of the country though, tending to the other branches so they've never really seen him much unlike Ultear and Lyon.

Kinana shrugs. "They're launching a new line of cupcakes or something and they've put him in charge of design. He's coming over to personally see that they follow all of his designs down to the last detail."

"Wow, that's just—''

"Juvia, what are you still doing here?" Erza barks at her. "All the executives in each department are expected to welcome him!"

"Ah yes! Apologies, Erza-san," she says, giving a short bow. She gives a quick goodbye to Lisanna, before scurrying off to the elevators and heading to the Marketing Department. The moment she gets on the third floor, Laxus immediately greets her, looking stressed and annoyed.

"Where the hell have you been? You're the only one missing!" he hisses.

"Laxus-san! Juvia's so sorry! She had no idea about what happened with the Nongchang deal—''

"Jesus Christ, forget about the Nongchang deal," he irritably says. He grabs her hand and starts pulling her forward. "Gray's coming over in a few minutes and you need to get your ass in gear. Me and the rest of the Marketing Executives need to be the one to greet him."

The two of them furiously tear through the department. All around them, people are spraying perfume or lining up their awards on full display. A couple start typing random things on blank word documents while others start loudly talking about marketing promotions and logistics in a stilted, contrived manner. Finally, they get to the center of the room, where the two other executives, Freed and Alzack are standing. Laxus barks at his assistant, Evergreen to prepare the coffee and as she scurries out of view, Juvia gives a small wave to Lisanna who's giving her a thumbs up.

Finally, the elevator pings. Everyone looks at it as it slowly opens, eyes wide with an anticipation.

A man finally steps out, wearing a smart suit and holding a brief case—

Oh no.

Oh god.

No way.

It can't be.

She was never supposed to see him again.

It's him.

The same dark hair and serious gray eyes. He looks cleaner and less amiable but it's definitely still him.

It's the man from the plane.

He's Gray Furubasuta.

When he meets her eyes, they flicker in surprise before melting back into an impassive expression. He starts striding over towards them, his steps quick and purposeful. Juvia thickly swallows and tries to calm herself down. Maybe he doesn't remember her. Maybe that wasn't recognition in his eyes. It was a short flight after all. Well. Kind of.

"Good morning, Furubasuta-sama," Laxus says, bowing respectfully. "I hope your flight was well?"

His lips quirk in amusement although it was so subtle that hardly anyone would have probably noticed it. "It was a little turbulent. But overall, a pleasant flight."

"These are my executives," Laxus says, stepping back so they can introduce themselves. Freed and Alzack go first and Gray gives them pleasant smiles.

When it's Juvia's turn, he smiles at her, but it's a polite smile, the same one he's given to both Freed and Alzack.

Juvia sighs in relief. He doesn't remember after all.

Laxus then starts talking, going on and on about hiring new talent and giving the junior staff responsibility as early as possible and as they all walk to the board room, Evergreen comes in and hands each of them a cup of coffee.

Juvia takes a small sip, listening to just about a third of what Laxus is saying when Gray suddenly faces her and says, "How's the coffee?"

Juvia nearly chokes.

Like a tape recorder in her head, she can hear her stupid voice prattling on.

"...office has the worse coffee ever. Laxus-san refuses to change the coffee machine..."

"Delicious," she squeaks out.

There's a spark of amusement in his eyes.

"I'm very glad to hear it," he says.

Laxus vigorously nods his head. "That coffee machine has been here for three years. Here in the marketing department, we don't believe in spending our money on superfluous things."

"Ah. That's good."

Laxus starts talking again and Gray goes back to listening to him. As the two of them go on and on, Juvia starts deciding that perhaps she's imagined it all. After all, asking how the coffee tastes is a perfectly reasonable question that every one asks.

"...Juvia over here just came from Beijing to secure a deal with Nongchang although it didn't fall through." Her head jerks up when she hears her name. "But we're going to keep working on it and we'll probably send her back in a few weeks. She's one of our brightest and youngest marketing executives, speaks fluent, conversational Mandarin so she's quite handy and is our go to person whenever we have deals with China..."

Gray gives her another look. "Really? Well, that is quite handy."

"Ah...yes!" she says in a strangled voice.

"Where did you learn the language?"

"Juvia—I mean I had it for a subject in the university," she says. Damn it. She was prepared to control her habit of speaking in third person when talking to Laxus, but not with him.

"That's amazing! Just one subject and already you speak it so fluently! Or did you have other classes after?"

"Oh you know. Ju—I mean, I learned it here and there."

He doesn't start making references to Jackie Chan movies so there's a tiny swell of hope in her chest that he's just asking out of curiosity and not to tease her. They pause a little in the middle of the room so that Laxus can introduce the marketing assistants and Juvia hangs in the back. Maybe he'll forget about her if she does.

"...Karen is an absolute godsend and we might be promoting her real soon."

"I'm sorry, Karen?" Gray says.

"That's me, sir," Karen politely says, standing up and giving a short bow.

Gray doesn't say anything, just looks at the small spider plant on her desk. He runs his fingers over the leaves for a few moments before looking at Karen.

"What a remarkable plant!"

"Thank you, I water it every day," Karen proudly says.

Gray just looks at Juvia from the corner of his eyes and allows his impassive face, a small smirk.

He remembers. Oh god. _He remembers._

She's going to get fired. She's just told the company's top executive about G-strings and having weird, one-off dreams about her best friend. He probably sees her as this irresponsible, unprofessional idiot and will now talk to Laxus about firing her. And to think, only a few weeks ago, Laxus promoted her.

"Juvia!" Laxus sharply says.

"Yes?"

"Weren't you listening? Furubasuta-sama asked you a question!" he indignantly says.

Juvia looks at him and tries to keep her legs steady.

"I need to see you in my office before we proceed with the meeting," he calmly says.

"What for?" she says.

"I need to run some promos with you."

He gives her a secret little smirk that makes her chest lurch. "And before you go, I just want you all to know that I'm very excited work with all of you."

He gives Juvia rare smile that reaches his eyes.

The first thing that crosses Juvia's mind is "Wow, he's cute when he smiles" and the second is, "Juvia's so going to get fired."

"Yes," she says, in an unnaturally high voice. "Me too."


	4. Was it Something I Said

**Pairing:** Gray/Juvia  
 **Title:** Was it Something I said  
 **Rating:** K+  
 **Prompt:** "I planned out this super romantic proposal and you just ruined it by beating me to the whole proposing thing."  
 **Requested by:** Anonymous  
 **Author's Note:** So, I've been bombarded with tumblr and fanfiction messages requesting for a follow-up to my last guvia fic, _Point Me at the Sky_. To be honest, I really intended it to be a oneshot because I never expected it to receive this much of a response. But fear not ^^ Kate (the ever so lovely muffindragon) has given me quite a lot of ideas for the fic and I already have half of the draft of the second part. I have no idea where this fic will take me but I will say this: there will _definitely_ be a follow-up whether it's just a twoshot or a separate multi-chaptered fic.

* * *

Juvia had the unfortunate habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time so she had, on several occasions, ruined many of Gray's attempts at being romantic.

Like take for example, that time he bought her a dog. The two of them had just hit the one-year mark and she had been not-so-subtly pestering him about doing something to "advance their relationship." Giving her a key to his apartment was out of the question (because he lived with Natsu and he and Juvia were far too chummy for Gray's liking) and so was bringing up the possibility of living together (it was way too soon). In the end, he settled with buying a dog for the two of them. As far as he knew, Juvia was the kind of girl who loved surprises and cute, cuddly things. He didn't care much for pets himself but Juvia was important to him and he wanted to show her that he was willing to commit to something as big as taking care of a living thing with her.

He bought her a tiny, brown dachshund and carefully placed it in a baby-blue carrier that had a bright bow pinned at the top. He planned on surprising her when he went to pick her up at work. He would place it at the backseat of his car and as she entered, the dog would bark and she would turn around and squeal before reaching out to tackle Gray in a hug, all the while praising him for being so thoughtful and romantic.

But when she got in the car, she barely even noticed the dog. Instead, she was too focused with rambling about Gajeel and his latest drama with his cat.

"Pantherlily scratched Gajeel-kun's couch again and nearly ruined his guitar and now, Gajeel-kun has no idea what to do with him. Honestly, pets are such a hassle," Juvia said.

Gray grimaced and for a moment, had the mad urge to usher Juvia out of the car so he could hide the dog somewhere. But before he could, it gave a little yip. Juvia turned around, eyes widening. Then, she turned back to give him an embarrassed, guilty smile before going on and on about how she actually really loved dogs and how they were completely different from cats and how she was confident that the "great love they had for each other" would surely survive anything—even temperamental pets.

Gray just weakly smiled at her and mumbled something about how the dog was for him and Natsu.

And then, there was that time he tried to surprise her for her birthday. He booked a table by the bay at this swanky new restaurant called Maceo's and paid a huge amount of money for the string quartet to play nothing but Juvia's favorite songs for the whole evening. He also made a bouquet of handmade, paper flowers that had two sheets of apartment listings wedged at the top.

They had been together for nearly two years now and Gray thought that it was high time that the two of them move in together. They had been spending more and more time in each other's apartments—so much so that Gray had an entire cabinet full of Juvia's things in his room while she had one of his things in hers. Natsu and Lucy had also begun talking about getting a place together and he'll be damned if he let Flame Brain get the better of him in that aspect.

He had just turned around the corner, towards the street that led to Maceo's when Juvia's long discussion about Lucy's new evening dress somehow dissolved into a rambling review of Maceo's. "Lucy and Natsu-san went there the other day. She told Juvia that the food was absolutely horrible and the waiters were all stuck-up and snooty and the view isn't even that good because of all the pollution."

Gray stiffened and pressed his foot against the pedal in an attempt to speed past Maceo's.

Except that he had already pulled over at the restaurant's entrance.

Juvia blinked rapidly, her mouth opening and closing.

"This is Maceo's," she finally said.

"Yes," he mumbled.

"This is the restaurant you were talking about this afternoon," she said, still dumbstruck.

"Yes," he said, forcing the word out.

He sounded like a strangled cat.

He was about to suggest that the two of them go eat somewhere else but before he could, Juvia clutched at her cheeks and started wailing and apologizing and rambling on and on about how she thought Lucy was exaggerating and how she was sure that criticisms against the place were just hearsay and how even if they weren't, it wouldn't matter because she loved him and didn't care where they ate; the only thing that mattered to her was that she would be with him.

At Juvia's insistence, they still ended up eating at Maceo's although he did decide to postpone the "let's move in together" conversation for later. The mood had been sufficiently killed and even Juvia's elated little squeal at hearing all her favorite songs being played by the string quartet was not enough to bring it back.

(He asked her the next day, while they were taking a shower together and he ended up dislocating his shoulder and banging his head against the tiles when she tackled him into a hug and screamed, "YES!")

And of course, he could never forget that time he bought the two of them tickets to Ibiza. Juvia was a marine biologist and she usually worked all year round, even on holidays. But she and her team managed to discover a new species of coral and after doing a couple of press releases about it, the company that employed them gave them a month-long break as a reward. Gray had just finished his latest exhibit and thought that it was probably going to be forever before they both had the same free time. There was literally no time more perfect than now for them to go out of the country. He had been thinking about it for some time and just a week ago, Juvia had mentioned that she wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny for the winter.

He decided to bring it up when the two of them were sitting in the couch one night, his head on her lap as she gently ran her fingers through his hair. As he brought the ticket out, a plane zoomed into view on the TV screen in front of them.

Juvia involuntarily shuddered.

"What's wrong?" Gray said, frowning.

"Juvia hates planes. She can't stand being in one. Whenever they need to send someone to our partner organization in America, she always makes sure to have an excuse to not go," she said. She shook her head, mouth twisted into a grimace. "She wouldn't get on one even if her life depended on it."

Gray quickly tried to hide the tickets but it was too late. Juvia had already seen them. She started apologizing and in a quivering voice, explained that she was horrendously afraid of flying, that she had the embarrassing habit of blurting out humiliating things when she was on a plane, that she once screamed for three whole minutes straight and puked on the nice, old lady sitting next to her during a five-hour flight.

Eventually, her apologizing dissolved into crying and Gray spent the whole night consoling her that the tickets really weren't that expensive and that he honestly didn't mind because Ibiza didn't sound that great anyway.

(The two of them ended up road-tripping to Oarai and taking a ferry to Hokkaido where they spent the better part of the week just having sex or lying in bed. Gray wasn't exactly complaining.)

So, when finally he came to the conclusion that he loved her—as in absolutely _loved_ her—and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, it was perfectly understandable that he spent forever and ever obsessing over how he would go about proposing to her.

All of his attempts at sweeping her off her feet never went as planned—for some strange reason, Juvia always said something that ruined the whole experience. He only had one shot at proposing to her and he wanted it to be _perfect_.

He thought of nothing else for the whole week; he kept putting it off as he went over it again and again, tossing it and turning it and picking it apart and putting it back together. Eventually a day passed and then a week, and then a month, until it was nearly a year. He already had the ring but still hadn't come even close to proposing.

At first, he considered taking her out to a restaurant (that was decidedly not Maceo's) and slipping the ring in the champagne glass for her to find. But he immediately vetoed the idea when he remembered that Natsu proposed to Lucy the same way and Lucy nearly ended up choking on the ring. Then, he decided that maybe he should propose at the place where they first met (it was at the building of the company she used to work for, Phantom Lord—he bumped into her and rudely called her a clumsy idiot and she yelled back at him in return and they ended up having a huge fight). But when he googled the place up, he was disappointed to find that in the last three years, it had fallen into disrepair with neglect and abandon and had decidedly become less romantic. He then toyed with the idea of proposing to her by the beach—she loved it there and always told him that all of her happiest childhood moments happened in that place.

It would have been the perfect plan. If it weren't for the fact that Juvia was swamped for the whole week with work and he still had that damned triptych to finish for his exhibit.

In the end, he decided to propose to her at home. He cooked her a nice meal (roast chicken with mashed potatoes and buttered vegetables—her favorite), dimmed the lights and put aromatic candles around their apartment. Rose petals forming the words "Will you marry me?" were carefully arranged on the floor of their living room and soft, dreamy music was playing in the background. It was, quite frankly, the corniest, most ridiculous thing he had ever done. But Juvia was a romantic and he knew that she loved stuff like this.

Plus, it was also simple and quiet.

Which meant that there would be even less chances of Juvia saying anything—like how pets were annoying or how Maceo's was horrible or how she hated flying—that would demolish what little confidence he had when it came to being romantic.

He picked her up from work, the ring growing heavy in his pocket. The whole drive home, he could think of nothing but the proposal—how he would do it, how she would react. He began to craft an entire speech of what he was going to say in his head, only listening to a third of what Juvia was saying.

When they finally reached the building, Gray deliberately walked slowly, wanting to prolong the moment. He didn't even know why he was so nervous. Juvia loved him. He was sure of that. And if she said no, he loved her so much that he would understand and let her go. Or he would fight for her — fight tooth nail and for her to stay. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. That was the most important thing—loving her. If he truly loved her then it wouldn't matter if the outcome was good and bad.

They had just arrived by the door and he was just about to open it when Juvia pulled his arm and irritably said, "Gray-sama!"

"What?"

Juvia loudly exhaled. "Of course. Of course, you wouldn't be listening when…when it came to this!"

Gray gave her a guilty look and quickly said, "What are you talking about! Of course, I've been listening."

Juvia gave him a suspicious look.

"What did Juvia say, just now?"

"Er…" He tried hard to recall what she was talking about in the car. Vaguely, he remembered her talking about how long they had been together. He figured she must be talking about their upcoming anniversary. "You were talking about our third anniversary?"

He gave her a weak smile.

Her frown deepened. "No. Juvia wasn't! She was talking about a completely different thing!"

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. He opened his mouth to apologize—he did not want the moment to be ruined before it even started. But before he could, Juvia tipped her chin up and gave him a determined look.

"Well, no matter. Juvia is still going to push through with this." She took a deep breath, as if to still herself. Then, she met his eyes. "Gray-sama, how long have we been together?"

"Nearly three years…" he said, confused.

"And in those three years, we've been good together, right?"

"Yes! Of course!"

"There has never been a time where we wanted to leave each other, right? And even if there was, it never really lasted long, right?" she continued.

"…Yes…" He began to panic. Why was she talking about leaving each other? Did she want to break up with him? "Juvia, what is this about—''

"And you can see yourself being with me in the future, right? Juvia means…she's just wondering if you see our relationship as something that is built to last."

"Of course I do!"

"Good." She stuck a hand in her pocket. "As you know, Gray-sama. Juvia is twenty-nine now."

"Yes, of course I know—''

"She's approaching thirty. She's at that stage in her life where she wants stability. Not that she wants it _now_ , per se," she hastily added. "Just the promise that it's going to be there waiting for her, somewhere along the future."

She started to draw the hand that was in her pocket out. In it was a small ring box.

Fuck.

 _Fuck_.

"Gray-sama…Juvia knows that this is a bit unorthodox but—''

"NO!"

Juvia blinked at him in shock.

The two of them stood there in uncomfortable silence for several minutes.

"W-What?" she sputtered.

"No! Don't propose to me!" he yelled.

Juvia's cheeks were suddenly hot with embarrassment.

"Juvia can do what she wants! And just so you know, we live in the modern age! It's perfectly okay for a girl to propose to her boyfriend—''

"No! No! _No_!" Gray was livid. He thought too hard about his proposal, obsessed over it for several days. He was not going to let her beat him at proposing. "I don't care! Don't propose to me!"

"If you're embarrassed about the ring, it's perfectly masculine!" she yelled back. "Gajeel-kun helped picked it!"

"It's not the ring."

"So, it's just me," Juvia shot back. "You just don't want to marry me. You just don't want to commit."

Immediately, he started regretting saying everything he said to her. Maybe he should have let her propose. He could've laughed, slipped the ring on and said something like "You know, it's a funny coincidence because…" And then, he would swing the door open and she would see all the rose petals and candles and the dinner he's cooked and she'd tackled him into a hug. And years from now, when they would be old and have a bunch of grandchildren, they could all look back and laugh at this moment.

But instead, he went and yelled no at her and now Juvia looked angry and on the verge of tears.

"Juvia, it's not that—''

"Fine! _Fine_!" She threw the ring box on the ground and turned away from him. "Juvia doesn't care! If you're not going to commit, then Juvia doesn't see any point in wasting her time with someone who's not in it for the long haul!"

She stepped away from him and wrenched her fingers around the doorknob.

"Juvia, wait. That's not what I meant—''

Before he could finish, she swung the door open. Juvia paused her eyes growing wide. She took in the candles, the rose petals, the dimmed lights, the soft, romantic music playing the background.

"Oh. Oh. OH." She turned to look at him, her face beaming with happiness. "OH MY GOD!"

Gray gave her a weak smile and held out the open ring box. It had a dainty silver band in it and a shiny, bright water drop-shaped diamond that twinkled and sparkled like ice.

"Marry me?" he awkwardly mumbled.

Juvia's excited expression immediately became subdued. She gave him a guilty look. "Juvia ruined it again, didn't she?"


	5. Don't You Forget About Me

**Title:** Don't You Forget About Me  
 **Rating:** K+  
 **Prompt:** "I'm going to need you to put on some underwear before you say anything else."  
 **Author's Notes:** So, actually a kogkag request was supposed to come before this one but it ended up becoming longer than I expected so I had to put it aside and save it for the long weekend. This fic is inspired by the TV series _Samantha Who?_  
 **Requested by:** Anonymous

* * *

It's official.

Tonight is the worst night.

 _Ever_.

And it's not as if she has very high standards. That tends to happen when you bring the rain with you wherever you go and have to deal with people constantly whining and complaining about it.

Not that she minds.

She's used to it. She's lived with the rain for as long as she can remember and has stopped wallowing or waxing poetic about it since she was three. But her boyfriend's just broken up with her and she's botched an incredibly important mission and now, Gajeel's drunkenly singing this ridiculous song about bananas and whipped cream.

So she figures she's allowed to be miserable. Trying to keep her absolutely smashed best friend upright is something that would definitely be so much easier if it weren't, you know, _raining_.

She sighs and scrubs a hand through her face. She never should've agreed to go out drinking with him.

But in her defense, it's not like she had a choice. He practically manhandled her out of her apartment, loudly complaining about how annoying she's being and how he's sick and tired of her being "all mopey and weird about that asshole." To be honest, she's surprised herself that she's taking the break-up really hard. It's not as if she expected her and Bora to last more than five days. Nobody ever sticks around her for that long. Except for Gajeel.

(And maybe the rest of the Element Four. But they don't really count—they _tolerate_ her more than anything.)

Which is fine, really. Her job calls for her to be a bit of loner anyway. Phantom Lord is horrendously competitive and people are always trying to one-up each other so you can't really trust anyone. Gajeel's the exception because even though he likes to make a big show of not caring, she knows that he totally does. Back when she was still insecure and scared that he'd bolt, she'd walk away whenever they had fights, just to see if he would follow her. He always did. He really isn't the worst friend.

Anyway, Gajeel's still singing although he's calmed down and stopped trying to drag her back to the karaoke machine so they could sing one more song. She'd usually be game for it because she _loves_ karaoke and she and Gajeel usually compete to see who has the better score (he always wins which really isn't much of a surprise. When he puts his mind to it, he can actually sing wonderfully). But she needs to get up early the next day to deal with the mission she's messed up and it's going to be doubly difficult with a hangover. She's not as a drunk as Gajeel but she did drink seven vodka mudshakes and she's fairly sure that everything's a lot blurrier than they're supposed to be right now.

"Sprinkler…" Gajeel drawls as his tugs at her collar. "Come on! Just one more song."

"Gajeel-kun…Juvia has a mission tomorrow," she impatiently says. She really can't afford to screw this one up any more than she already did. She's worked hard to get to the position of S-class and she doesn't want to backslide. Being at the bottom of the food chain is never a good place to be. Plus, she has to flush all of the alcohol she has in her system so that she can show up tomorrow looking calm and collected—as if she's made out of stone and nothing in the world can affect her.

To be honest, she doesn't even know how she ended up getting the reputation of an emotionless, perpetually bored ice queen. She's actually quite emotional and she cries or screams over the silliest things. Keeping it all in and pretending like she's all cool and unaffected is really difficult and sometimes, she can't help but feel that it's somehow all spilling out. Maybe that's why it rains all the time.

"So? Skip it," he mumbles.

"Juvia can't," she says. "Master Jose will kill her."

Gajeel frowns at her, as if he's having trouble comprehending her words. "But it's a mission with Titan Nose. Dickweed's gonna be there."

Juvia winces even though she doesn't mean to. Gajeel pauses and his eyes kind of softens, as if he's momentarily snapped out of his drunken haze and realized what he's just said.

"Sprinkler…" he quietly says.

Her chin wobbles and she braces herself. She's in a pretty edgy mood right now and she just knows that if he says something nice to her, she's going to burst into tears.

"Yes, Gajeel-kun?" she says.

He gives her a serious look. "I want to sing one more song."

She blinks at him once. "What?"

Before she can say anything else, he suddenly bolts away from her, climbing up the tall steps that leads to the bar. Juvia pelts after him, rain slamming against her coat and boots. She's completely forgotten to hold her umbrella aloft and now it's swinging behind her, the tiny, metal points stabbing at her back.

"Gajeel-kun, wait! We don't have time to—''

Before she can finish, her foot skids on a wet step and she starts tumbling forward. Instead of falling face-first, she slips a couple of steps more until she's rolling downwards like a three year old, her umbrella flying off her hands, her skin scraping against the pavement as she desperately tries to grab the metal rails and—

Oh god.

The ground's coming straight towards hers.

And there's nothing she can do about it.

She can't believe it.

This is really happening.

She's really going to fall—

* * *

When she wakes up the next morning, her head is throbbing horribly and her throat feels dry and rough. How long has she been awake? Is it morning? God, she feels so _awful_ , as if her body's been ripped apart and placed through a meat grinder. What happened last night? Did she go drinking or—

Suddenly, she remembers Bora calling her over and complaining about how they never get to do any fun stuff because of the rain and Gajeel cajoling her out of her apartment after the break-up. She remembers ordering shot after shot of vodka mudshots and singing ridiculous _Journey_ songs.

Okay, that's it.

She is never drinking again.

 _Ever_.

She can't even bring herself to open her eyes. Exactly, just how many shots did she drink last night? Surely, it couldn't have been more than five. She had a mission the next day—

Oh no.

The mission.

She is _so_ dead.

Or fired at the very least.

She forces herself to sit up, wincing as a sharp pain shoots across her spine. Her head pounds harder and her skin is dry and rough, like sandpaper. She's trying to remember what happened after she went out drinking with Gajeel last night but all that's flashing across her mind are old memories. A plate of potato chips across a bright blue deck, her dad sitting across her wearing his straw hat and saying, "Eat up, raindrop," the smell of cinnamon and cilantro in her mother's kitchen, the steady fall of raindrops that day they told her, her parents died, the old man at the orphanage teaching her how to play the piano, the kids making fun of her and pushing her in the mud—she cringes and speeds past that memory—meeting Gajeel for the first time and getting into a fight with him, serious, gray eyes, a silhouette smiling against the sunlight, warm and soft, the long, winding steps to Master Jose's office—

Wait.

Steps.

Yes!

She fell down some steps last night, chasing after Gajeel.

She sighs in relief and moves a hand to her chest, frowning when she hears a dry rustle of sheets. That's weird. They don't feel like the ones she has at home. And there's this weird, lemony scent in the air and she's wearing a soft, cottony T-shirt that she doesn't recognize.

Hang on a minute.

She didn't go home with someone, did she?

No, that's impossible.

She's not that kind of girl. She'd never go home with some random stranger. And besides, even if she was drunk enough to, Gajeel would've stopped her. He's insanely protective of her.

With a huge effort, she wrenches her eyes open and—

What on earth?

Where is she?

She's lying in a dim room, on a metal bed with an IV drip in her left hand attached to a bag of fluids. There are a bunch of flowers on the nightstand next to her. Carefully, she starts reading through the cards, her mouth slanting into a frown as she reads name after name. Lucy, Cana, Natsu and Happy, Erza, Raijinshu, Lyon. Who are these people? New neighbors? No, that can't be right. Even though she hardly goes out and socializes, she still makes an effort to get to know the people around her. They must've delivered the flowers to the wrong room. She's going to have to talk to the nurse about that.

Next to her is, an empty bed with disarrayed sheets. She recognizes a couple of Gajeel's shirts stacked on the bed and his tattered, duffel bag, so she figures he must've been the one to bring her here and stay the night. On her bed is a small, plush doll of a dark-haired, shirtless man with a strange guild mark stamped on his chest. Huh. That's weird. She doesn't remember stitching up a teru teru bozu doll like this.

She's just about to swing out of the bed when someone enters and sternly says, "Don't you dare get out of that bed."

Juvia pauses and stares at the woman who's just entered. She's pink-haired and old, her face curled into an unpleasant expression, as if something foul-smelling is shoved up her nose.

"Erm…Juvia wasn't trying to get out. She was just—''

 _"Stay put."_

"Okay," she squeaks.

The woman the strides over to her and starts checking her temperature and fixing up the bandages on her arms and head.

"Um…excuse me. But Juvia would just like to ask where she is?"

The woman looks at her as if she's an idiot. "You're in the sick bay of Fairy Tail's building."

"Fairy Tail? Is that some sort of new hospital in Oak Town?" she says, frowning.

The woman's "Are-you-stupid?" look intensifies but before she can give another curt response, loud footsteps echo across the hallways. The door suddenly bangs open with such a force that it nearly comes off its hinges and Gajeel hurtles towards her and grabs her by the shoulders.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU PUT US THROUGH, YOU CRAZY-ASS RAIN WOMAN?"

"G-Gajeel-kun?" she says, confused by his livid expression. And the fact that he doesn't look nearly as hungover as he should be.

She narrows her eyes as she looks him over. Something seems different about him. The changes are subtle, things you wouldn't really notice at first glance. His hair's a bit longer and less wild and he's grown a couple of inches. His face also looks clearer, the tiny dots of pimples that prickled across his forehead and nose gone and the amount of piercings and studs on his face seems to have magically multiplied.

In fact, he actually kind of looks…older.

Which is ridiculous because he can't have aged overnight.

"Don't act like you don't know!" he crossly says, shaking her.

"But Juvia doesn't—''

He pulls her into a bone-crushing hug before she can finish and murmurs, "I thought that you were—I thought that you were a goner for sure."

Honestly, she just fell down a flight of stairs. And he calls _her_ dramatic.

"Gajeel-kun, calm down. It was just an accident," she says.

"Accident? Accident?" he roars. "You were out for three days!"

Three days.

Juvia's eyes snap wide open.

Then, that must mean she missed the mission. This is it. She's a goner. Master Jose will kick her out of the guild and she'll be wandering around Oak Town, with nowhere to go.

"Is…is master mad?" she whispers, mentally preparing herself for Gajeel to tell her that she can't go back to the guild anymore.

"Hell yeah, he is! He's furious at that bastard who did this to you!"

Bastard?

Did she miss something?

Did someone _push_ her down the stairs?

"Anyway, I can't stay long. Gotta go and inform Stripper that you're awake. You know, he's been hassling me non-stop about it? He even had the nerve to demand to be the one to stay with you! Can you believe him?"

"Stripper?" Her head begins to throb again, rattled at the barrage of words Gajeel's just said. Who on earth is Stripper? And why is he even called that? Perhaps it's a new pet Gajeel's bought? He's been saying that he's always wanted to get a cat or a dog someday.

"Gajeel-kun, what are you—''

"But seriously though. If you ever pull something like that again," he snarls. "I will nail you to a tree."

She presses her lips in a pout. "Well, sorry for chasing after you!"

He frowns at her. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Juvia was chasing after you and slipped on the pavement and fell down the stairs. You wanted to sing one more song, remember?"

He just gives her this weird look.

"Juvia. You didn't fall down the stairs. You were on a mission with Stripper," he slowly says. "Some prick cast a spell on you that sent you flying through a brick wall."

" Mission? Stripper? Who the hell is this Stripper person?" she cries out, slightly impressed that she's managed to let a curse word slip.

"Gray. Gray Fullbuster."

She gives him a blank look.

"Gray-sama? Took the rain away? Love of my life? My one and only?"

He stares at her expectantly.

She just blinks rapidly back at him, slowly trying to digest his words.

"Love of my life? You mean Bora don't you?" she says.

"What? Who?"

"Bora. Bora of Prominence. Juvia's boyfriend. Well. Ex-boyfriend."

Gajeel's weirded out look is now slowly replaced by one of concern. "Juvia. We haven't seen Bora in years."

"What? What are you talking about? We just broke up three days ago," she insistently says.

"Juvia—''

"Excuse me!" Pink Haired lady irately says. Gajeel clamps his mouth shut and turns to look at her.

"As you can see, she's in a delicate position right now. If you had just done what I'd said and waited outside until I told you she was clear, you wouldn't have caused even more damage," she stiffly says.

"Damage?" Gajeel replies, looking nervous.

The woman ignores him and turns to face Juvia. She grabs a clipboard and begins to write a couple of things down before looking up to peer at her.

"Juvia, you're last mission caused quite a bump in your head so I'm going to have to ask you a few questions," she briskly says. "Bear with me if some of them seem blindingly obvious."

"Okay," Juvia says, voice small. She doesn't know where this is going but she has a bad feeling about this.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Juvia Lockser," she promptly replies. The woman nods her head and adds a tick mark in the paper attached to her clipboard.

"When were you born?"

"September 29, X767."

"Good, good," the woman says. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

Gajeel suddenly snorts. Juvia glares at him. "What?"

"Can you please repeat that?" the woman says.

"Sixteen. Juvia is sixteen years old," she says.

"Don't be stupid, Jujubee!"

Jujubee?

Since when did Gajeel called Jujubee? It's always been "Sprinkler" or "woman."

"Have you forgotten how to count or something? You're not sixteen anymore."

"No. Juvia is sixteen," Juvia stubbornly says.

Gajeel opens his mouth to answer but he is interrupted by the pink-haired woman who scribbles something on her paper and shows it to him. Gajeel's eyes widen and his mouth snaps open in shock. He raises his eyes to look at the pink haired woman before glancing at Juvia in concern.

Her heart suddenly starts flip flopping.

She knows that expression. She's seen all the hospital movies. They must've done a scan on her and discovered that she's paralyzed from the waist down. Or lost her legs. Oh god, no. She can't lose her legs. They're her best asset.

Okay, she needs to calm down. Maybe it's nothing. Except, it's never nothing. Because otherwise why would they look at you like that?

"Is something wrong?" she says, trying to put on her "Rain-woman" face and keep an outward veneer of calm. Surreptitiously, she starts feeling through the blankets.

"Juvia, I need to ask you another question," the pink haired woman says.

"Sure…uh?"

"Porlyusica."

"Er…right."

"What year is it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Don't be alarmed," she says although her voice is nowhere near re-assuring. "Just tell me what year you think it is. It's one of our standard questions."

She looks at Porlyusica and then Gajeel trying to see if they're both playing a trick on her.

"Just answer the question, Sprinkler," Gajeel says.

"It's X783."

A weird stillness falls over the room, as if no one wants to breathe.

"Juvia," Porlyusica's voice is gentler now. "This is going to sound strange. But today is February 2, X791."

Her face is serious. Gajeel's face is serious too. For a moment, a chink in her brain seems to have opened up but then it closes again and the only logical explanation she can think of is that her teammates are playing a prank on her. Yet again.

"Ha ha." She glares at Gajeel. "Very funny. Did Toto put you up to this? Or maybe Sol? Aria?"

"Juvia, there is no more Toto or Sol or Aria."

"What?" she says, poleaxed.

"We're not guildmates with them anymore. We're in Fairy Tail now."

"Fairy Tail? The hospital?"

"No," Gajeel patiently says. "The guild."

"But…but…that can't be. You must be joking!"

"Juvia, we're not joking," Porlyusica says without breaking her gaze. "We're in X791."

"But…that's the _future_ ," she stupidly says. "Are you saying that Juvia's somehow been magically transported into the future?"

She tries to force out a laugh but Gajeel and Porlyusica are dead serious.

A cold feeling suddenly starts creeping up her chest. It's as if two sides of her brain aren't connecting. She can hear what they're saying but she can't quite process it. Yesterday was X783. How can they have jumped eight years?

"Look, it's not X791. It's X783. Juvia is not stupid—''

"Let's take this slowly," Porlyusica briskly interrupts. "What do you last remember?"

"Okay well…" she takes a deep breath and scrubs a hand through her face. "Juvia remembers…Bora-kun breaking up with her. And she remembers being so distracted that she screwed a mission up. She remembers eating ice cream and crying in her room afterwards. And then…Gajeel-kun got annoyed and dragged her out of her apartment so that they could go drinking. We were waiting for a carriage to bring us back home when Gajeel-kun ran away and Juvia chased after him and slipped down the stairs.—''

"Juvia, that all happened years ago," Gajeel quietly says. "You're remembering the wrong accident."

He looks so sure. Panic suddenly starts bubbling up from inside of her. It's X783. It _feels_ like X783.

"But that can't be—''

"Sprinkler, look," Gajeel says, handing her a newspaper. The date says X791. There's no mistaking it.

"So…" Juvia thickly swallows. "Juvia has been lying here in a coma? For eight years?"

She can't believe it. Eight years wasted. While she lay sleeping, the whole world's been going on without her. Master Jose and the entire guild must've made her scrapbooks, kept vigils, sung her songs—no wait. She's getting ahead of herself. _This is Phantom Lord_. They'd as sooner push people off the highest floor than do something as nice as keep vigils for a guildmate. They're all expendable there anyway so it probably didn't matter that she's been gone for so long.

"No, that's not it," Porlyusica's voice pierces through her thoughts. "You were only admitted three days ago."

Oh right. Gajeel told her that.

"What? But—"

"Juvia, I need you to take a deep breath because the next words that I'm about to tell you may be a bit difficult to swallow," she says.

"Okay," Juvia squeaks.

"I think that you're suffering from what we call retrograde amnesia. It's a condition which normally arises following head injuries."

The words seem to just float over her. She's looking at Porlyusica but it's as if she's not quite seeing her. Suddenly, a terrifying thought comes to her. Are they syndicates? Have they taken her somewhere to steal her organs and then make up this ridiculous story about how she's lost eight years' worth of her memory?

But then, Gajeel is there so…

"Juvia…are you okay?" Gajeel says, concerned.

"So you're saying….that Juvia's lost eight years of her memory?" she says.

"Well...just a year technically," Gajeel interjects.

"What?"

"There was this timey-wimey thing in Tenrou Island and—" He abruptly stops when Porlyusica gives him a warning look. "Never mind. I'll tell you more later."

"So, Juvia's lost all her memories?" she repeats.

Porlyusica gravely nods.

"And she can't ever get it back?"

She shrugs. "Hard to tell. We'll see during therapy."

"But there must be some sort of…of potion that will bring it back! Or a spell or—''

"Playing around with memory using magic is a tricky business. If we do it wrong, you could lose _all_ of your memory," Porlyusica abruptly says.

"So…it's gone _forever_ ," Juvia miserably says.

"I don't know. We're going to have to see in the succeeding days," she replies.

A silence creeps over the room. Juvia looks down and stares at the weird, shirtless teru-teru bozu doll in her hands, trying to summon up a memory of when she made it. She comes up with nothing.

"Juvia?" Gajeel says.

"Can…Juvia see the newspaper again please?" she says, voice trembling.

He nods his head and carefully hands it over to her.

X791.

It really is X791.

Which means that she must be….

Twenty-four.

Oh god.

She's _old_.

* * *

So apparently shes not really twenty-four. Just seventeen. Biologically at least. Apparently something's happened in this island that froze all of them in time while seven years passed. Gajeel's about to say more but Porlyusica interrupts him, going on and on about tests and therapy and brain scans. Gajeel asks the question she is dreading to ask, which is if amnesia patients usually get their memories back. She responds with a reassuring nod and says that, that's usually the case and she needn't worry. It might take a little time though because the damage seems quite extensive.

Eventually, she leaves and Gajeel stays behind to talk to her about all the thing's she's missed. He tells her about how she really did end up fixing the mission she's botched, how Phantom Lord disbanded a year later after a huge fight with Fairy Tail, how Juvia somehow managed to get in and beg Fairy Tail's Master to let Gajeel in. He tells her about Lucy, Cana, Erza, the Raijinshu, Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Lyon, Gray—names that are drawing _nothing_ from her.

He tells her about the whole Edolas mess and the S-class trials.

"S-class trials?" She frowns. "But we're already S-class."

Gajeel shrugs. "We kinda banged their guild up pretty bad. So it was only right, I guess, that we got demoted back to level one when we entered."

She stares at him, mouth still pressed together in displeasure. She doesn't like the sound of them being back at the bottom of the heap. She's worked long and hard to get the position she had in Phantom Lord and it's a little irritating to know that she's back to where she started.

"Well, did we pass?" she demands.

He shakes his head. "No. Some crazy shit happened before we could finish."

He starts telling her about the stuff that happened in Tenrou Island and when he finishes, she thinks that she kind of gets the confusing age thing now. He also explains to her the process of the trials and as he does so, her frown deepens. "That's ridiculous. How on earth is that supposed to test if a mage is ready for an S-class mission or not?"

Back in Phantom Lord, they would test potential S-class mages by sending them on a S-class mission accompanied by a mage with that rank, just to make sure that someone is capable enough to step in should anything disastrous happen. Fairy Tail's way of giving out tests seems quite strange and disjointed and it's really not doing much to reassure her that she and Gajeel have gone to a guild with the same high quality standards as Phantom Lord.

He tells her about the rest of Element Four, how he's kept in touch with Toto (who's become a teacher) but not with everyone else. She's about to ask more when Porlyusica strides into the room and calls Gajeel over, saying that she needs to talk to him about something. Gajeel shoots her one more concerned look before walking out, saying that he'll be back.

Juvia sighs and settles against her bed, trying to process everything that's happened. Gajeel hasn't really told her too much about this new guild, except for the fact that it's apparently "more relaxed" than Phantom Lord. She doesn't know what that means but what she is sure of is that, that's not an excuse for her to let her guard down. She doesn't know these people yet and she has no cause to believe that they won't turn on her.

She's just in the middle of looking through the cards again when the door suddenly bursts open and a _naked_ man starts stomping over towards her.

"Juvia!" he says, in relief. "Thank god you're okay—''

"Don't touch me!" she screeches, extending her arm and sending a water whip towards his chest. He slams against the wall with a hard thud.

"What the… what the hell is wrong with you!?"

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she irritably retorts. "You're the one who came in here naked like…like some kind of pervert!"

 _"I'm not a pervert!"_

"You're butt naked!"

"What? What are you—ack!" He gives her a guilty look and opens his mouth to speak but before he can, Juvia swiftly interrupts him.

"Juvia's going to need you to put on some underwear before you say anything else."

He gives an embarrassed little nod and scrambles outside, coming back only when he has a pair of half-buttoned jeans on. Juvia glowers at him, her arms still stiff in an offensive, fighting pose.

"Oh, for fuck's sake Juvia stop acting like you're not used to it!" the man says.

Juvia stares back at him, incensed.

"Excuse me? Just what are you implying?" she says, outraged. "Juvia's not the kind of woman who goes about peeping on…on…men's…men's boy-parts!"

The man blinks at her, confusion slowly creeping up his face.

"Yes, I know that," he slowly says. "But I just thought you would've…gotten used to my _habit_ by now."

"Habit? What habit?" she says.

"You know…" He gestures at his half-naked body.

Juvia makes a sound of disgust. "Your hobby is stripping naked and flashing people?"

"You know it's not like that!" he crossly says.

Juvia folds her arms, annoyed. She doesn't know who on earth he is but he sure isn't making a good impression. He does know her name though so she figures he must be a guildmate.

A _creepy_ guildmate.

Quickly, she schools her features so that she looks bored and impassive. She can't have him see her in this moment of weakness and agitation. The trick about looking powerful is you have to act as if nothing in the world concerns you. As if everything is under control. People are more afraid of tranquil, collected people than fiery, dramatic ones. They're the ones you have to watch out for. That means that they've still maintained a level of composure to rationally calculate the best means to _destroy_ you.

"Is there anything Juvia can do for you?" she says, voice bland.

The man frowns at her. "Why are you talking like that?"

"Talking like what?"

"You know… _that_. Like how you used to…before we fought," he says. His lips are pressed together and there's a small dip in between his brows.

"Fought?"

"You know…during the big battle between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. We fought against each other."

Juvia carefully stares at him. He looks poleaxed as if the rug he's been standing on has just been pulled from under him.

"They haven't told you yet, haven't they?" she says after several moments of uncomfortable silence.

"Told? Told me what?"

She takes a deep breath before meeting his eyes. "Juvia can't remember."

"What?"

She tries to keep her voice as steady as possible. She can't show weakness. Especially to someone who was apparently once an enemy. "The accident in the um…mission did something to Juvia's brain. She can't remember anything that's happened in the last eight years. Or year rather."

"You're joking," he says in disbelief.

She shakes her head. "Juvia's not. The last thing she remembers…was being in Phantom Lord. She doesn't remember Phantom Lord disbanding,joining this new guild…meeting you."

"But…but…that's impossible," he says. For some strange reason, he's slowly unbuttoning his pants although Juvia's too distracted by the horrified expression on his face to call him out on it.

"Surely…surely…you must at least remember me." He places special emphasis on the word "me" as if her forgetting him is something so monumental, so ridiculous that it could never happen.

She suddenly feels annoyed. _How arrogant of him._ Who is he to think that she can forget everyone else but not him? What makes him more important than…Lucy or Erza or Cana or all these other people who sent her flowers? Now that she thinks about it, he didn't even bother sending her flowers. She would know because she's checked and read through the cards at least a thousand times.

She folds her arms and arches a brow at him. "Well, sorry but Juvia _doesn't_."

"But you must," he insistently says. He walks closer to her and puts a hand on her arm. "Go on. Try."

She shakes her head. "Juvia's been trying for the last half hour. She doesn't remember anything."

"Try harder."

"Look!" she irately says. "Juvia doesn't know who you are but she thinks it's pretty ridiculous of you to believe that she can forget everyone else but not you! What makes you so special, huh?"

He suddenly withdraws, as if scalded. He shifts from one foot to the other, the pants slowly slipping off to reveal a pair of dark, striped boxers.

"It's not me," he finally says in a small voice. "It's…it's what happened after we met."

Her brow ticks up higher, gesturing for him to continue.

"When we fought…I…I froze your rain—''

Juvia laughs.

"You froze Juvia's rain? Impossible! She's fought ice mages before. No one has ever been able to freeze her water magic, especially if she was using Sierra," she says.

"But I did," he insistently says. "I froze your rain. And then, I defeated you—''

Juvia loudly snorts. This is ridiculous. Nobody has ever beaten her in a fight since she was _nine_.

"It's true," Gray says. "I defeated you. And then…the rain stopped. And you finally saw the sun."

"Ha ha," Juvia blandly says. "Very funny. Juvia sees how this is. This is some sort of wind-up—''

"It's not," he says. "It really did happen—''

"That can't be true! Juvia's lived with the rain ever since her parents were killed. One person can't have just magically made it go away," she stubbornly says.

"Have you looked out of the window?" he quietly says.

"What?"

"Have you looked out of the window?" he repeats.

She hasn't actually. She's been so caught up with this whole amnesia thing that she hasn't once bothered to look outside. Carefully, she shifts in her place and turns her head to the left.

And at that moment, everything seems to fragment.

Gold sunlight is peeking through the windows, washing the room with a soft, yellow light (how did she not notice this before?) and making the golden-brown leaves of the trees outside radiate with an almost angelic glow. Ignoring the pain in her spine and legs, she gets out of the bed and edges towards the window, pressing her nose against the glass. Above her, the sky stretches wide and blue, unmarred by any clouds.

"Juvia—''

She bolts past him, past the door, past the cold, clammy floors until she's outside. She looks up, sees the sun and blue, _blue_ sky and thinks about how wide and clear it is. So wide and clear and blue that you could practically swim in it. And before she can stop herself, tears leak from the corner of her eyes and a swell of emotion pulses through her. A part of her, the sad, lonely part starts whispering at her to push it down, to suppress it before they balloon into a great wave that will send the rain crashing down again but she's too happy to listen.

Suddenly, she's running, down the pavement, through the busy shops. She follows the sidewalk, winding down and around and back again. The sunlight is beating down against her, making her skin angry and red but she doesn't care. She can see clear skies and the _sun_ and the wind is warm and teasing as it kisses her cheeks and sways her blue curls.

"It's not raining!" she says once she's stopped running.

"Yes, it isn't."

She turns to look back and finds that the man with serious, gray eyes and dark hair is staring at her with a smile that reaches his eyes. She finds that it suits him.

"The sun is shining," she stupidly continues.

He nods his head. "Yes, it is."

"Juvia…Juvia can't believe it," she says.

She grows quiet for several moments, just relishing the feel of the heat against her skin.

"So…" the man says, voice uncertain. "Do you…do you remember me now?"

She bites her lip, sees the apprehension, the _pain_ in his eyes. _He cares_ , she realizes. He cares that she doesn't remember him.

Was he someone important to her?

But no, he can't be. He's a weirdo who _strips_. As desperate as she may be for friendship, she's pretty sure that even she's not crazy enough to lower her standards to… _that_.

But still, he does seem to know her fairly well.

She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to will a memory of him, of his dark hair and grey eyes and stern expression.

But there's nothing.

Just black, frictionless nothing.

"Juvia's sorry," she finally says. "She can't."

He loudly exhales, shoulders stooping as if the whole world has suddenly come down on his shoulders. Juvia takes a step back, a little frightened and guilty at the heavy expression on his face.

A long stretch of silence swells between them.

"Sorry," she says again.

He looks up, eyes wide, as if he's suddenly just remembered her presence. He smiles, although it's one that doesn't reach his eyes anymore and shakes his head.

"It's okay. Guess we'll just have to meet each other all over again." He holds his hand out. "I'm Gray."

Juvia tentatively shakes it. She's still not sure who he is or why on earth she's become friends with someone like him. But she figures that she at least owes him a chance.

She gives him a small smile. "Juvia."


End file.
